I like to find the pretty.

01/31/2017

Be Careful

Be careful not to underestimate the imagination of an eight-year-old boy.

Be especially careful if you give him a gift certificate for Christmas for "One Awesome Paint Job" for his new (big!) bedroom.

You'll be tempted to think he is just going to want the four walls painted with some bright color and, perhaps, a graphic design somewhere on one of them.

You'll be remembering how he hated leaving the little doggie you painted on the wall of his first bedroom and you'll think to yourself that he is just going to choose, oh, maybe a baseball and bat for his new one.

You'll be wrong.

You'll go out to 'consult' with him when he's ready to redeem his coupon and you won't be able to catch his vision of what he wants from his description.

You'll ask him to draw a picture for you, but you won't 'get it' from that, either, because "It's kinda hard to draw."

On Day One, you'll need to do a little caulking and paint the ceiling.

You'll need to paint the "It Wall" with a base coat, too.

On Day Two, you'll spend two or three hours putting Frog tape on the "It Wall" in a random please-use-straight-lines-and-make-mostly-triangles pattern.

It won't feel random by the time you are finished.

And then, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to run that base color over the wall again so it seals (hopefully) the edge of that tape and prevents bleed-through.

While it is drying, you will start painting the first coat on the other three walls, but once the "It Wall" is dry, you'll use some of the paint from the other walls to fill in some of those triangles.

You're just going to choose four random triangles to fill in, but you'll spend so much time striving for 'balance' that it won't feel that way by the time you are done.

As soon as you're done with that color, you will start filling in a few of the triangles with your other accent color.

You might feel a little heart-skippy trying to decide where those should be, but you'll have to press on; there is still so much to do.

Once you get that color out of your little roller, it will be time to shake up the 'real' color and get to work on all the rest of those triangles!

Now your "It Wall" looks pretty ugly, so you'll leave it for awhile and go finish the first coat on those other walls.

By the time you are finished making your way around that very big room, your wild colors will be dry enough for their second coat and, by golly, you'll give it to 'em.

Then you'll spend just a little time cleaning rollers and brushes and trays and yourself and your work area and...and...and...

Then, and only then, you'll have arrived at the Magic Moment.

You'll start pulling off those 12,752 feet of Frog tape (gosh, that's what it felt like).

And then you'll see just what was in the imagination of that eight-year-old boy.

You're going to have to come back for Day Three and put a second coat on those other walls and do a lot of this...

...because, doggone it, it bled through anyway.

But, when you're really finally finished with the whole thing...

...you're going to think it was worth all the work, because your little eight-year-old grandshoot is going to say he doesn't like it...he loves it.

And when his dad asks him how much he likes it and what he would give it on a one-to-ten scale, he is going to put his hands up and give you a solid...

Comments

Be careful not to underestimate the imagination of an eight-year-old boy.

Be especially careful if you give him a gift certificate for Christmas for "One Awesome Paint Job" for his new (big!) bedroom.

You'll be tempted to think he is just going to want the four walls painted with some bright color and, perhaps, a graphic design somewhere on one of them.

You'll be remembering how he hated leaving the little doggie you painted on the wall of his first bedroom and you'll think to yourself that he is just going to choose, oh, maybe a baseball and bat for his new one.

You'll be wrong.

You'll go out to 'consult' with him when he's ready to redeem his coupon and you won't be able to catch his vision of what he wants from his description.

You'll ask him to draw a picture for you, but you won't 'get it' from that, either, because "It's kinda hard to draw."

On Day One, you'll need to do a little caulking and paint the ceiling.

You'll need to paint the "It Wall" with a base coat, too.

On Day Two, you'll spend two or three hours putting Frog tape on the "It Wall" in a random please-use-straight-lines-and-make-mostly-triangles pattern.

It won't feel random by the time you are finished.

And then, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to run that base color over the wall again so it seals (hopefully) the edge of that tape and prevents bleed-through.

While it is drying, you will start painting the first coat on the other three walls, but once the "It Wall" is dry, you'll use some of the paint from the other walls to fill in some of those triangles.

You're just going to choose four random triangles to fill in, but you'll spend so much time striving for 'balance' that it won't feel that way by the time you are done.

As soon as you're done with that color, you will start filling in a few of the triangles with your other accent color.

You might feel a little heart-skippy trying to decide where those should be, but you'll have to press on; there is still so much to do.

Once you get that color out of your little roller, it will be time to shake up the 'real' color and get to work on all the rest of those triangles!

Now your "It Wall" looks pretty ugly, so you'll leave it for awhile and go finish the first coat on those other walls.

By the time you are finished making your way around that very big room, your wild colors will be dry enough for their second coat and, by golly, you'll give it to 'em.

Then you'll spend just a little time cleaning rollers and brushes and trays and yourself and your work area and...and...and...

Then, and only then, you'll have arrived at the Magic Moment.

You'll start pulling off those 12,752 feet of Frog tape (gosh, that's what it felt like).

And then you'll see just what was in the imagination of that eight-year-old boy.

You're going to have to come back for Day Three and put a second coat on those other walls and do a lot of this...

...because, doggone it, it bled through anyway.

But, when you're really finally finished with the whole thing...

...you're going to think it was worth all the work, because your little eight-year-old grandshoot is going to say he doesn't like it...he loves it.

And when his dad asks him how much he likes it and what he would give it on a one-to-ten scale, he is going to put his hands up and give you a solid...